News Corp. (NWS) Short Interest Down 26.6% in October

News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,258,602 shares, a decrease of 26.6% from the October 14th total of 3,076,585 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 957,215 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days. Approximately 2.2% of the company’s shares are short sold.

In other news, CFO Bedi Ajay Singh sold 29,857 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.39, for a total transaction of $429,642.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 33,667 shares in the company, valued at $484,468.13. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 39.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Emerald Acquisition Ltd. acquired a new stake in News Corp. during the second quarter worth $4,596,000. Cornerstone Capital Management Holdings LLC. increased its position in shares of News Corp. by 1,557.6% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Capital Management Holdings LLC. now owns 384,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,471,000 after buying an additional 361,608 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Institutional Trust Company N.A. increased its position in shares of News Corp. by 12.9% in the third quarter. BlackRock Institutional Trust Company N.A. now owns 2,873,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,868,000 after buying an additional 327,643 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of News Corp. by 201.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 485,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,907,000 after buying an additional 324,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in shares of News Corp. by 119.5% in the third quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 579,635 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,241,000 after buying an additional 315,521 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.44% of the company’s stock.

Several analysts have commented on the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of News Corp. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 9th. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of News Corp. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America Corp. lowered shares of News Corp. from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.00.

News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS) opened at 12.35 on Thursday. News Corp. has a 52 week low of $10.73 and a 52 week high of $15.22. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $13.40 and its 200-day moving average is $13.09. The company’s market cap is $7.18 billion.

News Corp. Company Profile

News Corporation is a diversified media and information services company. The Company operates in five segments: News and Information Services, Cable Network Programming, Digital Real Estate Services, Book Publishing, and Other. The Company’s business consists of range of media, including news and information services, sports programming in Australia, digital real estate services, book publishing, and pay-television (TV) distribution in Australia, that are distributed under the brands, including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, Herald Sun, The Sun, The Times, HarperCollins Publishers, FOX SPORTS Australia and realestate.com.au.